Spy Party: The Event

The big event was yesterday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day.  Ten spy recruits attended and several of their parents stayed too.  Recruits arrived at 2:30 sharp and gave my son the correct response to his greeting: "Happy St. Patrick's Day!"  The way to know that the response is a code, is to know the Irish. An Irishman would never say, "Tis a good day."  To a real Irishman, it would be grand, or great, or fantastic!

After correctly revealing the password, the new recruits received code names. They spun a dial to get their secret agent code names. (The dial was a twister spinner with two circles of names. The first name was on the inner circle and the second name was on the outer circle.  A bit backwards, but I had done the first names first and so there it was.) Some of the names were: Dr. Monkey, Cool Molder, Black Monogram, Stellar Ninja, Stealth Hawk, Masked Wolf, Stealth Dawn, and Major Mist. Some parents even got names.

After getting code names, spy trainees sat down and to make finger print cards. When all of the agents arrived, Dr. Monkey's Dad showed them how to lift prints off of a glass with UV powder, tape, black paper and a UV pen light.

In the background, the spy party music was playing. My husband made a playlist with songs from two Music to Spy By albums, Kim Possible, Powerpuff Girls and Shrek. You could hear this playing while the recruits focused on their next task at the counter intelligence station.  They received dial ciphers and used papers from their folders. They proceeded to decode messages in their folders using the dial and the vigenere ciphers from the International Spy Museum web site. The codes said, "Cruz is eight" and "He is glad you came."  A sheet of funny messages was also included courtesy of the talented and generous Luna's Daughter.

At last, we allowed thechildren to go through the laser field. They had been begging since they arrived.  This was set up in the hallway using red crepe paper streamers.

After that, they used lemon juice, baking soda and white crayons to write secret messages. We started this inside in the play room but because it was such a nice day, we moved the table outside.  While the messages dried, they ran around the yard and gave Cruz's outgrown play equipment a fond farewell.  Those castles must have felt like Andy's toy, Wheezey.

After that, the recruits were told it was time to go to the spy disguise station. Note: A box labeled "Disguises" was prominently placed on the piano in clear view of the entrance and the first two party stations. They ran back to the living room to find the box on the floor with a note.  Someone had stolen the disguises. Uh, oh...training was over.  The mission was on!

To be continued...